Apple Testing Chinese Memory Chips in iPhones and MacBooks

[MacRumors]

Apple has been testing memory chips from China's ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) across product lines including iPhones and MacBooks, according to a report today from The Wall Street Journal ($).

Laptop makers HP and Acer have already started using memory chips from CXMT in devices sold outside the U.S. Meanwhile, Apple has held early talks with CXMT about supplying components for devices sold in China, and the company is hoping for a sign-off from the White House before going further. The Financial Times reported last month that Apple had begun qualifying CXMT's DRAM, but today's report is the first to place that testing inside specific product categories.

What could scupper any potential deal are U.S. rules that bar American companies from transferring technology to CXMT, including conversations about technical details and product specifications. Export lawyer Kevin Wolf of Akin Gump told WSJ that Apple can buy off-the-shelf CXMT components and haggle over price, but it can't commission chips designed to its own requirements.

Apple usually has memory specially configured to work optimally with its own silicon, so using standard parts could mean reworking sections of its hardware, or potentially settling for less-than-ideal performance.

What's making Apple's life harder is the fact that a bipartisan group of senators led by Chuck Schumer has asked the company to rule out using Chinese memory entirely. A response to the request is due August 21.

There are supply issues to contend with as well. CXMT has reportedly maxed out production for the year and has little room for new international customers, having already prioritized domestic buyers such as ByteDance, Tencent, and Xiaomi. Its prices reportedly sit level with (and sometimes above) those of Micron, SK Hynix, and Samsung. That's bad news for Apple. A fourth supplier only helps if it has chips to sell and sells them cheaper. Right now though, CXMT does neither.

Apple raised prices across its product lineup (excepting iPhone models) in June, blaming memory costs driven by the AI infrastructure demand.

Note: Due to the political or social nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Political News forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Article Link: Apple Testing Chinese Memory Chips in iPhones and MacBooks

 

[ThailandToo]

It’s all made in China anyways… should it really matter?

 

[JoshuaBru]

I thought Apple was moving away from the China bottleneck so when WW3 breaks out we aren’t all using cup and strings

 

[mr.steevo]

I’m just happy to have learned a new word from this article.
Haven’t heard of scupper before today.

 

[Happy_John]

I thought Apple was moving away from the China bottleneck so when WW3 breaks out we aren’t all using cup and strings

If there were RAM chip fabs in other countries that still had RAM chips or future capacity still available to sell, I’m sure Apple, or anyone else. would be following that up.

But it seems there isn’t.

 

[Luis Ortega]

Why aren’t all these billionaire tech bros and companies building their own manufacturing plants instead of buying the biggest phallic yachts and survival islands to escape the storm they are causing?
The phrase ‘eat the rich’ may come back in vogue if they don’t wise up.

 

[Happy_John]

Why aren’t all these billionaire tech bros and companies building their own manufacturing plants instead of buying the biggest phallic yachts and survival islands to escape the storm they are causing?
The phrase ‘eat the rich’ may come back in vogue if they don’t wise up.

Fabs take a long time to build and get up and running.

That the “billionaire tech bros” are not doing this could be an indicator that they themselves are not convinced massive AI growth is sustainable, despite their pushing exactly this idea.

In other words, they might themselves believe the AI bubble will burst even while they are inflating that bubble. By the time new fabs are up and running, demand might have cratered.

 

[StrollerEd]

I’m just happy to have learned a new word from this article.
Haven’t heard of scupper before today.

really?

There's a wide vocabulary of English words to enjoy

 

[Radeon85]

America banning everything because it’s not made in America is getting stupid at this point. If you want Trump to take you back to the Stone Age, then so be it.

Maybe Apple should just abandon the US and build a new headquarters in another country, a country that doesn’t hold back technological advancement.

 

[Luis Ortega]

I’m just happy to have learned a new word from this article.
Haven’t heard of scupper before today.

I learned an interesting word reading an article- unasinous
It seems very pertinent these days of rampant social media.

 

[ifxf]

Why aren’t all these billionaire tech bros and companies building their own manufacturing plants instead of buying the biggest phallic yachts and survival islands to escape the storm they are causing?
The phrase ‘eat the rich’ may come back in vogue if they don’t wise up.

At today's very small chip dimensions, manufacturing knowledge is critical in a successful foundry. You don't have a bunch of untrained workers glueing and screwing together a part. Why do you think about half of TSMC Arizona foundry employees are from Taiwan.

 

[PsykX]

It’s all made in China anyways… should it really matter?

If it's made in China, 99% of the time it doesn't really matter. On the opposite, they're actually good at making stuff. They're much better than the USA.

If it's designed in China, it's a whole different story.

 

[syklee26]

If Apple is really using CXMI chips then they have zero reasons to jack up prices.

 

[segfaultdotorg]

The failure rates will be astounding. SAD!

 

[deevey]

If Apple is really using CXMI chips then they have zero reasons to jack up prices.

Did you read the article?

"Its prices reportedly sit level with (and sometimes above) those of Micron, SK Hynix, and Samsung."

 

[CarAnalogy]

Once again, Schumer and cronies should have done something about this 20+ years ago. They were all still in office then.

They can tell Apple what they don't want them to do, but they can't offer any alternative because the US government has failed to effectively encourage American manufacturing of any sort for 40+ years.

 

[ChrisMac47]

If it's made in China, 99% of the time it doesn't really matter. On the opposite, they're actually good at making stuff. They're much better than the USA.

If it's designed in China, it's a whole different story.

That's a last-century opinion. China leads innovation and design now, the US gave up its leadership a long time ago. It's something we should all celebrate.

 

[Biro]

If Apple is really using CXMI chips then they have zero reasons to jack up prices.

Wrong. Read the article again. CXMT’s prices aren’t any cheaper than the other fabs. Meanwhile, the goal for Apple is supply. If they can source CXMT chips for devices sold in China, then there’ll be greater supply from Samsung, Hynix and Micron for devices sold across the rest of the world.

 

[Biro]

That's a last-century opinion. China leads innovation and design now, the US gave up its leadership a long time ago. It's something we should all celebrate.

And if anyone thinks China hasn’t already gotten a very good look at the design and technology in Apple silicon, they are very naive.

 

[rp100]

Hypothetically, Apple could use CXMT modules in China-specific phone models. After the hardware bubble pops and the political storm blows past, Apple will have the better position at the bargaining table.

 

[skitidetdu]

Politicians should really stay away from what decisions Apple and other businesses makes. Lobbied politicians got us in the memory shortage dilemma in the first place.

 

[Will Co]

That's a last-century opinion. China leads innovation and design now, the US gave up its leadership a long time ago. It's something we should all celebrate.

And if anyone thinks China hasn’t already gotten a very good look at the design and technology in Apple silicon, they are very naive.

...and they learned a lot of their current prowess from Apple. And not by stealing, but by being actively trained by Apple engineers.

 

[PsykX]

That's a last-century opinion. China leads innovation and design now, the US gave up its leadership a long time ago. It's something we should all celebrate.

Hardware-wise yes.
Software-wise no, faaar from it.

And hardware-wise, they might add a bunch of stuff to spy on you.

 

[DestructoTim]

At today's very small chip dimensions, manufacturing knowledge is critical in a successful foundry. You don't have a bunch of untrained workers glueing and screwing together a part. Why do you think about half of TSMC Arizona foundry employees are from Taiwan.

That is a bad politically influenced, non-logical take. See the next chess move ahead and stop thinking about only today. China thinks in decades and that is how they have moved so far ahead. Anybody of average intelligence can be trained in the amount of time it takes to build these facilities. This is common sense. Stop fighting against your own country's future. We need manufacturing to stay afloat. Money doesn't grow on trees. The reason for the large Taiwan employee roll is multi factor. Trade secrets. Control. Finances. Taiwan can't hand it's economy over to foreign lands. Taiwanese workers send their pay home to their families and frequently visit their home country, insuring a good amount of money goes back to Taiwan. Of course in any scenario you would need a small number of experienced workers to train an American workforce, but you don't need half of them to be experienced Taiwanese indefinitely. What do you think happens in Taiwan when the experienced workers retire or die? They are constantly training and hiring new workers in Taiwan. Some of the Taiwanese workers coming to America will be new trainees.

The fact is we need manufacturing, and manufacturing that is a solid piece of our economy will take decades to build. You can doom say it all you want, but the alternative is a dead end. You will live more comfortably in the short term, but there is no light at the end of that tunnel. The building blocks must start now.

 

[Happy_John]

Hardware-wise yes.
Software-wise no, faaar from it.

And hardware-wise, they might add a bunch of stuff to spy on you.

That’s a security issue, not a te univalve competence issue.

Technologically, the gap between Chinese competence and US or Korean competence has narrowed and continues to narrow.

This is getting very obvious in smartphones, and even more obvious in EVs.

The tech concerns with Chinese hardware in 2026 are all about security, not quality.